• Age: 13 to 17
• Grade: 8 to 12
• Reading age: 13 to 18

Faith Emily Hansen just wants to be loved and to live without the weight of addiction. But the relief that she gets from being wrapped up in the cozy little cotton ball of heroin is impossible to ignore. Faith’s story starts in her earliest days, before drugs, before her family falls apart. She eventually becomes consumed by the need to “chase the dragon," the heroin addiction that seems to keep the Darkness at bay, but leads her to live on the street. The determination to find love and comfort that lures Faith to drugs is ultimately the same stubborn force that can drive her to recover.

E. Graziani writes books in multiple genres for adults and teens. She is the author of Breaking Faith, a contemporary young adult fiction novel, selected for the “In the Margins” Book Award 2018 Recommended Fiction List and one of Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Best Books for Kids and Teens, and War in My Town, one of Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Best Books for Kids and Teens and finalist in the Hamilton Arts Council 2016 Literary Awards for Best Non-Fiction. She was a reader and reviewer for WUofC Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers and is a regular contributor on CHCH Morning Live Book Chat. She resides in Canada with her husband and four daughters. Visit her website for more information, events, and new releases: egraziani1.wixsite.com/egrazianiauthor

E. Graziani's profile page

• Commended, In the Margins Award Recommended Fiction List
• Commended, Canadian Children's Book Centre's Best Books for Kids and Teens - Fall 2017

Told in Faith's tortured voice, this novel traces the path of despair as she loses everything that a growing young woman needs to survive and thrive.... Graziani's heartrending novel is a gritty, realistic voyage through a teen's path of despair and the all-too-tempting panacea of self-medication through drugs, which soon destroys those who would "chase the dragon." Many older teens will connect with this believable portrait of a teen experience with homelessness and addiction.

School Library Journal

Breaking Faith is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.... E. Graziani provides a deep look into a life we need to witness so that we might walk with the Faiths of this world before we need to pull them up and rescue them or worse.

CanLit for Little Canadians

Breaking Faith is an unflinching look at mental illness and addiction. The events of Faith’s life are heartbreaking, the more so for being completely believable. The themes of mental illness, drug addiction, and life on the street as a runaway are explored in realistic detail.

VOYA

A gripping read that will impact even the most jaded teenager.

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

At first glance, Breaking Faith is a highly captivating novel for teens; however, it's also subtly educational... Thought provoking and genuine, it highlights how just loving and nurturing someone can be a life-saving act.

Canadian Children's Book News